CFP: [Renaissance] Early Modern Dis/Locations

Early Modern Dis/Locations: An Interdisciplinary Conference,Northumbria University, 15-16 January 2010

On 15-16 January 2010, Northumbria University in Newcastle (UK) will hostan interdisciplinary conference on Early Modern Dis/Locations. Theorganisers invite scholars and students working in literary and culturalstudies, history, geography, philosophy, and related disciplines to submit200 word abstracts for 20-25 minute papers relating to any of thefollowing themes and questions by June 1st 2009. Contributors are free tointerpret and address these as broadly as they deem appropriate:

â€¢ What were the significant locations for and of early moderncultures, and why? How might we re-think and problematise constructionsof court, city (or particular cities, real andimagined), â€˜suburbsâ€™, â€˜countryâ€™, the â€˜nationâ€™,the â€˜homeâ€™, â€˜privateâ€™, â€˜publicâ€™, the marketplace, thestreets, â€˜landscapeâ€™, colonies and plantations?

â€¢ To what extent and which locations were conceived and constructedas gendered, rank-specific, desirable, or disgusting?

â€¢ How were all such locations experienced (and by whom), andrepresented in literature, art, and philosophy?

â€¢ In what ways did locations condition, inhibit, or compel politicalagency and cultural production and consumption?

â€¢ How were locations demarcated, policed, transgressed andjeopardised in the period?

â€¢ How was dislocation caused, theorized and represented in theperiod? What were the realties and representations of placelessness,homelessness, and dispossession? Where, how and why did â€˜mobilitiesâ€™occur, and in what forms?

â€¢ How have early modern cultural products and locations â€" like TheGlobe â€"been relocated into and appropriated by later historical andcultural positions?

â€¢ How can modern theories of â€˜spaceâ€™, â€˜placeâ€™, and â€˜placelessnessâ€™develop our understanding of early modern locations and dislocations?